Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, and a facsimile machine, or a multifunction peripheral of at least two of the foregoing capabilities, and a fixing device installed in the image forming apparatus.
Related Art
There has been conventionally known a technique of air-cooling the surface of a pressure roller (pressure rotator) provided in a fixing device installed in an image forming apparatus such as a copier and a printer, using a cooling assembly (cooling unit), for preventing such a failure that a surface temperature rise of the pressure roller generates a hot offset image, or heat expansion or heat deterioration of the pressure roller is caused.
For example, in a certain fixing device, a nip to which a recording medium is conveyed is formed by a pressure rotator such as a pressure roller and a pressure belt being pressed against a fixing rotator such as a fixing belt and a fixing roller. In addition, the recording medium is conveyed to a portion (corresponds to the nip) between the fixing rotator and the pressure rotator, where a toner image on the recording medium is fixed. Then, the cooling assembly (cooling unit) cools the pressure rotator by blowing air onto the outer circumferential face of the pressure rotator.